Shades of Grey
by MissDevon
Summary: When Sam attacks Tea and her son, Victor, in a crowded squard room while Tea is delivering divorce papers to John, he has a decision to make. Does he side with Sam, or does he do for Tea what he once did for his brother and Marci, and just where does Natalie and Tomas fit into this. Tea/Nat/Blair smackdown on Sam. Jolie/JoVane Sam/Brody/Jess? Todd/Carly


Shades of Grey

John stared at the angry face of Sam McCall as Tea Delgado looked at him with an upraised eyebrow. Exhaling, he pulled Sam to the side: "You know I'm right, John!" the brunette demanded of him loudly as he pulled her across the squad room and into one of the interrogation rooms.

Slamming the door shut, he pushed her into a chair: "Shut up, Sam. For one god damned minute just shut the hell up and listen for once in your life!"

"Excuse me? That's not your child out there! That someone STOLE from you. You know nothing about…"

"I know nothing about it?!" John asked incredulous as he laughed at her. "I lost my SON because of you. My WIFE because I was caught up in your freakn' neuroses. Instead of being with her and our son I was here playing nursemaid to you!"

"You can't compare the two," Sam said with a flip of her hair.

"Can't I?" he laughed hollowly. "I lost almost a year with my son because someone decided to play God with mine and Natalie's lives and changed Liam's paternity test results."

"Well, if she was sleeping around on you…" she shrugged as she pouted prettily and looked up with practiced wide eyed innocence- innocence he was no longer buying.

"Unlike you, Sam, my WIFE didn't sleep around!"

"I was raped…" she spat in mock horror.

"This time," John answered back evenly. "You think I don't know why I don't get to see my son alone? Why one of the Quartermains is always standing nearby.  
It's because of you, Samantha. You and the fact that you watched someone kidnap Jake Spencer- you remember him, don't you? If not I'll refresh your memory. He's the son your ex had with the woman whose name he was calling out on his deathbed!"

"That's cruel, John."

"OK what about the fact that you knew, but kept quiet, about your sister being abused by her boyfriend? What was that because she lived and your daughter didn't?  
Or sleeping with all those marks who died from 'self-defense' wounds?"

"Those are allegations and that woman…"

"TEA has HER SON by Victor Manning," John spit out as he looked out the window at the woman who was a close friend and sometimes confident; who had even apologized when she had brought the divorce papers from Natalie, the same papers that he still refused to sign.

"HE's MINE!" Sam said, jumping to her feet and stomping her foot.

John sighed. Part of him hated what he was doing, but part of him couldn't help it. He had done this for Michael and Marci; he had to do it now for Tea. After all, who was there to deny it? Todd Manning who would have to admit he had switched the babies?  
Heather Webber from her cell in Ferncliff?

And it was the best choice, especially after the actions that Sam had taken over time.  
If she ever did get the tests she wanted done, they could, and he knew would be doctored. Natalie would see to it in any PD station, and if she couldn't, Tomas would.

He had seen Sam Manning destroyed by the choices the courts made for him. Knew that Ace had been too. This time he could help advert the damage.  
"Tell me, Sam, is he your son the same way that Dominic was?" he asked as Alexis walked in.

"Aren't you being a bit hard on her, John?" the attorney asked.

"Just giving her a reality check, Alexis," he answered as he started to the door and then turned back. "See that woman out there? That's Victor Manning's widow. Todd's sister in law. She has her son with her because Starr couldn't watch him and Dani is in class.  
Sam, of course, remembered that Tea had her baby the same night that she did.  
Their rooms where down the hall from each other and she's always had it in for Todd. Always believed with no evidence that he had to have done something because he was willing to destroy his niece-my wife, Natalie.  
See, Natalie wasn't his favorite like Jessica was, and contrary to what he might have said to Sam or others, he wanted to hurt HER because she got the house, the husband, and the family she always wanted.  
He paid off doctors to try to give his daughter that- didn't work so well.  
In fact they were so intent on saving Cole they let the man Jessica loved- the father of her son- die. Right across the hall.

And down the hall Natalie and Jessica's mother- Todd's precious sister Vikki was on an OR table and he could care less.

Anyway, because your daughter saw Tea holding her own child the next morning, down the hall from her room and Todd- for God knows what reason; maybe actually because he wanted to, I don't know protect the kid whose father he took away from it because in some twisted way he loved its mother or thought it would get Blair's attention- from a woman who had just lost her son and was barely cognizant of what she was doing- well Sam's now insisting that Victor is HER son."

"Sammmmm…." Alexis sighed in exasperation.

"Mom, he is. I know he is!" she pleaded.

"John, can you…."

"I'm sure I can smooth things over with Tea.  
She was here to talk to me about Natalie and Liam anyway," he said as he headed towards the door and paused to look back at them: "Oh, and Sam, that great connection was nothing but BS to get you to give me the information I wanted.  
I did know you.  
I was following your cons and your path of destruction till you got me and my first fiancée targeted by a serial killer.  
I had enough back then to put you behind bars… you just gave me extra over the last year!" he said before storming out and motioning to Dante: "Set her up with a transport to Ferncliff with Ewen meeting her there, would you?"

"With pleasure. She should've been sharing a cell there with Heather after she took my son," Dante said as he strolled off to follow the directive and Natalie walked out of Anna's office. ..


End file.
